Finally: Soccer Team Walks Off Field in Response to Racist Chants
Kevin-Prince Boateng
Racism in European soccer is a relatively common, but players actually responding to those chants isn’t normal at all. For the most part, players ignore the racist European fans who are trying to rankle them and continue on with the match.
In Italy, however, AC Milan players walked off the field when racist fans began chanting, thus abandoning an exhibition match in the first half with lower division club Pro Patria on Thursday.
The chants which prompted the team to walk off the field were all directed at black players, and they were continued even after the announcer urged the racist fans to stop.
Having had enough, Ghana midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng picked up the ball and kicked it at a section of the crowd in the 26th minute of the first half. Then Boateng walked off the field with his fellow teammates.
“Walking off was the right choice when faced with something like this,” Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri said. “We need to stop these uncivil gestures. Italy needs to improve and become better educated and more intelligent.”
The Italian soccer federation (FIGC) said, “We need to react with strength and without silence to isolate the few delinquents that transformed a friendly match into a mess that offends all of Italian football.”
Many soccer fans will also recall the incident where Russian fans tossed a banana at a black soccer player:
A Russian soccer fan threw a banana at Chris Samba after his team, Anzhi Makhachkal, lost to another team in Moscow on Sunday. To Samba’s credit, he tossed the banana back into the crowd. The Congolese born soccer player called the banana incident “an act of a stupid person.”
Boateng later tweeted, ”Shame that these things still happen… (hashtag )StopRacismforever.”
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5 Responses to Finally: Soccer Team Walks Off Field in Response to Racist Chants
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Racism is alive and well in sports the world over. Think back to the comments that were made when Tiger Woods, The Williams sister first came onto the scene? The comments were ruthless and from all directions. I’m glad team Italy had the guts to walk out when faced with such foolishness. It appears anytime a person of color enjoys a sport and excels in it no matter what level of play they are taunted by the dominated ethnic group that plays the game. Their scoring is off, they are hit with penalties when there are not any all bully methods to make them stop playing. It’s sick and sad.
Pet peeve of mine here not meaning any harm… Isn’t soccer just soccer no matter what country it is played in? European soccer doesn’t make sense but European football make sense. The terminology European soccer is incorrect. The opening sentence should read European football.
cookie
January 5, 2013 at 2:15 am
Always White folks. They are the one who started with with racism it was not here when they were not here.If blacks were so bad why do you shut them out, you should not worry about them if the are no good.
Haile
January 5, 2013 at 2:47 am
Its kind of funny that black americans are so indignant about this story but someone from Ghana would not spit on you if you were on fire. They do not care for black americans at all.ijs
Latrice
January 5, 2013 at 3:41 am
Come on people! Racism is every where! In the USA, whites don’t like black and brown but tolerate yellow.
In Asia Japanese are against Korean’s, Chinese, hate Japanese, they all dislike Philippines.
In Africa, the Hutu kill the Tusi, South Africans dislike the Namibian’s, Chad and Niger can’t stand Nigerian’s.
In Europe,Bosnian’s will kill a Croatian on site!
Russian’s and Ukraine’s, Russian’s and Azerbaijan’s, Germans and
Polish.
Mexican’s of European decent and those of Indian decent.
Brazilian of European decent and Brazilian of African decent.
Blacks in America think they are the only person who are discriminated against, so we try to make it go away using laws.
Well it won’t work, you can’t change someones heart with a law. Your grandparent will tell you how things changed here when we started to use our financial clout. Laws got us jobs, we failed to take advantage of the educational opportunity that was also made available to us. (as the youth put it, that’s being white) So when we should have been creating Microsoft or AIG, or a new airline,
instead we’ve been dancing and singing and spending to much time worrying about racism rather than going over it, around it or through it to make our selves better and richer, we have are hand out for government bailout rather than doing for our self.
Think Big!
Onesilverbac
January 5, 2013 at 8:36 pm
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